


One Man's Dare is Another Man's Military Excercise

by Betery



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, I thought this idea up at 2am please let me have this, Keith (Voltron)-centric, No actual hands are harmed, knife game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 12:32:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16995060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Betery/pseuds/Betery
Summary: Everyone goes their knife game phase. Whether you saw people do it or did yourself, it was a thing that happened. As it happened, Keith never outgrew the phase, and his 'secret' gets let out at in the Blades of Marmora, and well...they take it in stride.





	One Man's Dare is Another Man's Military Excercise

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be honest I haven't watched season 8 yet I just had this thought at 2 am and wanted to see it to fruition I hope you enjoy!

It honestly had started as a dare in middle school.

“Yo I stole my brother’s knife so we can play five finger filay!” One of the boys had crowed.

“No way.” Said a girl shivering in revulsion the knife, “If my moms find me without a finger I’ll get grounded for forever!”

“Oh come on, you can even start slow! See, I’ll start.” And the boy started chanting a rhyme placing his hand on the cement of the basketball court while stabbing a pattern around his fingers and finished without a problem. He stood up and puffed his chest.

“See? Not scary at all!” He held out the knife.

“No way.” The girl repeated and the boy huffed, “Keith?” He asked, faceless in his memories and Keith shrugged, reaching out for the knife.

\--

It continued after his dad died too, with his weird shaped knife the only connection he had to his mom and now his dad. He tapped the end of the blade on the table in thought as he brooded about the future.

Then he met Shiro and he didn’t play as much, he had a whole new role model and a path to go on that could utilize skills that he had that didn’t have anything to do with stabbing in between his fingers.

But then Shiro disappeared and then he left the Garrison and he had nothing BUT time. So back to playing with his knife and figuring out what the hell those marking in the cave meant. He got used to getting tiny knicks on his hands, the rhythm of the knife on the table and the canter of the song on his tongue.

Then he saved Shiro and met a group of weirdo’s and then Voltron happened, and everything was spiraling out of control and it felt like the only thing he _had_ control of was his knife and the small amount of danger it held when he tapped it between his fingers.

Being leader was hard. Being a friend was hard. Just…. Getting away and being in the blade just DOING without any needless conversation or unnecessary leadership or responsibilities felt nice for once. But it was lonely.

Keith sat at one of the tables in meal area and he ate the food listlessly. Bored, he took out his knife and started playing the game around his hand, even humming the tune to the song from middle school. He got about three rounds in when another blade stopped to watch him.

He was tall, his mask was off and he furrowed his, well where his eyebrows SHOULD be.

“Why are you using your blade in this fashion?”

“It’s, uh,” keith struggled, “It’s no big deal I’m just-“

“Is it a precision exercise? Here let me try.” And he pulled out his own blade and repeated the pattern with ease getting faster and faster. Keith’s chest got a little tight with just how _fast_ this guy was able to get with his knife, he was about to stop the guy before it got into just- to much but the Galra gave a hearty laugh, “This is quite fascinating.” The Galra praised and sheathed his knife again, “I will share this with the others. Thank you for sharing this with me!” He clapped a friendly hand on Keith’s shoulder, knocking him a bit off balance.

“Wait, it’s-“ but he was gone.

Oh Quiznak, what had he done?

It took only a couple of days for the whole compound to be filled with blades sharpening or tapping noises. Blades goaded each other on. Even KOLIVAN got involved. Watching over everyone to ensure safety, but a proud smile perking on his lips.

Keith rushed to his quarters and took out his com device to contact the castle of lions and open up a link to hit, hoping someone would answer.

A screen opened up and Lance’s face greeted him.

“Hey, buddy! Been a while, how’s the blade thing going?”

“Uh….yeah about that. I may have infected the blade with an earth custom.”

“Which custom?” Lance frowned crossing his arms and leaning in, “It’s not wearing mullets is it?”

“What- no? God, in middle school there was this stupid knife game we used to play and I kinda find it relaxing-“

“Wait. You used to play the KNIFE GAME? Oh _please_ tell me you know the song!”

Keith frowned and shifted in his place on his bed, “I mean yes, but that’s not the problem! One of the blades thought it was some precision exercise and now everyone’s doing it and I don’t know what to _do._ ”

“There one only thing you can do,” Lance responded grinning from ear to ear. Keith really didn’t want to hear it, but he had to no other option, so he braced himself.

“What is it?”

“You have to teach them the song.”

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose and Lance laughed and laughed on the screen.

-The End

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it. Now it's time to get back to my other WIP's....and watch Voltron. For research purposes. Any comments, thoughts, keysmashes? let me see it! See you guys next time. :)


End file.
